LPD News Blog

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On February 22, 2014, at approximately 3:17 a.m. Tiffany Powell Humphries reported her son, Damarco Powell missing to the Lakeland Police Department. On the same date, at approximately 5:07 a.m. Officer Ryan Back located Damarco Powell’s deceased body in the wooded section of the 1300 block of Atline Road. The decedent suffered an apparent gunshot wound to the back of the head and was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS personnel.

On February 24th, the Defendant’s Taqiy Lewis and Tyler Knight were arrested in the late evening hours and charged with their involvement in the murder of Damarco Powell:

According to witnesses, the decedent and Tyler Knight were part of a gang known as Armed And Dangerous (AAD). The investigation revealed that Knight and another witness allegedly received threats from the decedent that he was going to set them up. Witnesses stated that as they walked through the wooded area off Atline Road with the decedent, Knight pulled a handgun and shot the decedent in the back of the head. During the investigation, Taqiy Lewis provided false information to detectives which resulted in him being charged with false report to a law enforcement concerning a capital felony.